Michael Sharp reviews "The Curious History of the Crossword: 100 Puzzles From Then and Now," by Ben Tausig.

Maki Kaji, a university dropout who turned a numbers game into one of the world’s most popular logic puzzles and became known as the “Godfather of Sudoku,” died on Aug. 10 at his home in Tokyo.

You know about puzzle books---books of puzzles, or books that are themselves puzzles. But then there's Codex Silenda---a gorgeous, wooden book of brainteasers that is itself a multi-part mystery.